Red Lodge Clay Center – Short-Term Resident (AIA) 2012
Matthew Towers received his B.F.A. in Theater from New York University and his M.F.A. in Ceramics from The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1996. He is currently an Associate Professor of Ceramics at the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford in Connecticut, where he has been teaching since 1997. In the summer of 2000 Towers was an artist-in-residence at the Archie Bray Foundation in Helena, Montana. In 2004 he received a grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. His work has been shown nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions such as Ceramics ‘97, Ceramics ‘99 , Ceramics 2001 and Ceramics 2005 (CT), White on White (MD), NCECA 2005 Clay National Exhibition (MD), Greenwich House Pottery (NYC), Pewabic Pottery (MI), The Elmhurst Art Museum, (IL), The Slater Memorial Museum (CT), The Archie Bray Foundation (MT), the Wexler Gallery (PA) and the Philadelphia Clay Studio (PA). He has also lectured at the University of Washington (WA), Sienna Heights University (MI), The University of Connecticut (CT), The University of Long Beach (CA), Rhode Island School of Design (RI), Alfred University (NY), Northern Arizona University (AZ) and the University of Alaska (AK). His work is in collections such as The Jingdezhen Museum of Ceramics (China), The Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, (NY), The Archie Bray Foundation (MT) and the Pfannebecker Collection (PA). His work is also featured in the books Sex Pots Eroticism in Ceramics by Paul Mathieu, Overseas Contemporary Ceramic Art Classics by Bai Ming and 500 Vases by Lark Books.
I view making functional pottery as an extension of my need to decorate and ornament my surroundings – as a testimonial about who I am, who I want to be and how I view the world.
I work with porcelain for its associations with correctness, good taste and social hierarchy so that I may reinterpret these notions based upon my own personal sensibilities as well as the contemporary world order. Variations on traditional pottery forming techniques such as throwing, stamping, slip casting and press molding serve as a means of referencing historical concepts associated with pottery forms. My goal is for the user of my work to have a transformative experience.